messenger, John the Baptist, began to preach the kingdom of God, sixty-two weeks, or four hundred and thirty-four years.

"From thence to the beginning of Christ's public ministry, half a week, or three and a half years.

"And from thence to the death of Christ, half a week, or three and a half years; in which half week he preached and confirmed the covenant with many. In all, from the going forth of the commandment till the death of Christ, seventy weeks, or four hundred and ninety years."

"And lastly, in a very striking manner, the prophecy foretells what should come to pass after the expiration of the seventy weeks, viz. the destruction of the city and sanctuary, by the people of the prince that was to come; which were the Roman armies under Titus their prince," &c.

66

Now," continues the astronomer, "both by the undoubted canon of Ptolemy, and the famous era of Nabonasse, the beginning of the seventh year of the reign of Artaxerxes Longimanus king of Persia, who is called Ahasuerus in the book of Esther, is pinned down to the 4256th year of the Julian period, in which year he gave Ezra the abovementioned ample commission: from which count 490 years to the death of Christ, and it will carry the same to the 4746th year of the Julian period." Before proceeding, however, with the extract, I will introduce an explanation of the Julian period from Dr. A. Clarke. "The Julian period is a factitious era, conceived by Joseph Scaliger, to facilitate the reduction of the years of any given epoch to that of another. This period is the result of the lunar and solar cycles, and the indictions, multiplied by each other. Thus, multiply 19, the lunar cycle, by 28, the solar cycle, and the product will be 532; multiply this sum by 15, the cycle of indictions, and you will have 7980 years, which constitute the Julian period. The first year of the vulgar era of Christ is placed in the 4714th year of the Julian period whence it follows, that to find any year of our Lord, 4713 years must be added to that year, and it will give the year of the Julian period sought. For example, to find the present year of our Lord, 1840, add to it 4713, and we have 6553 of the Julian period." But to return to Furguson's calculation. He proceeds:

"Our Saturday is the Jewish Sabbath and it is plain, from St. Mark, ch. xv. ver. 42, and St. Luke, ch. xxiii. ver. 54, that Christ was crucified on Friday, seeing the crucifixion was on the day next before the Jewish Sabbath; and according to St. John, ch. xviii. ver. 28, on the day that the passover was to be eaten, at least by many of the Jews.

"The Jews reckoned their months by the moon, and their years by the apparent revolution of the sun; and they eat the passover on the 14th day of the month Nisan, which was the first month of the year, reckoning from the first appearance of the new moon, which at that time of the year might be on the evening of the day next after the change, if the sky was clear. So that their 14th day of the month answers to our 15th day of the moon, on which she is full. Consequently, the passover was always kept on the day of full moon.

"And the full moon at which it was kept, was that one which happened next after the vernal equinox. For Josephus expressly says, (Antiq. B. iii. ch. 10,) the passover was kept on the 14th day of the month of Nisan, according to the moon, when the sun was in Aries. And the sun always enters Aries at the instant of the vernal equinox; which, in our Savior's time, fell on the 22d day of March.

"The dispute among chronologers about the year of Christ's death, is limited to four or five years at most. But as we have shown that he was crucified on the day of a paschal full moon, and on a Friday, all that we have to do, in order to ascertain the year of his death, is only to compute in which of those years there was a passover full moon on a Friday. For the full moons anticipate eleven days every year, (twelve lunar months being so much short of a solar year,) and therefore once in every three years at least the Jews were obliged to set their passover a month farther forward than it fell by the course of the moon, on the year next before, in order to keep it at the full moon next after the equinox. Therefore, there could not be two passovers on the same day of the week, within the compass of a few neighboring years. And I find by calculation, the only passover full moon that fell on a Friday, for several years before or after the disputed year of the crucifixion, was on the 3d day of April, in the 4746th year of the Julian period, which was the 490th year after Ezra received the abovementioned commission from Artaxerxes Longimanus, according to Ptolemy's canon, and the year in which the Messiah was to be cut off, according to the prophecy, reckoning from the going forth of that commission or commandment and this 490th year was the 33d year of our Savior's age, reckoning from the vulgar era of his birth; but the 37th, reckoning from the true era thereof.

"And when we reflect on what the Jews told him, sometime before his death, (John viii. 57,) Thou art not yet fifty years old,' we must confess, that it should seem much likelier to have been said to a person near forty, than to one

but just turned of thirty. And we may easily suppose, that St. Luke expressed himself only in round numbers, when he said that Christ was baptized about the 30th year of his age, when he began his public ministry; as our Savior himself did, when he said he should lie three days and three nights in the grave.

"The 4746th year of the Julian period, which we have astronomically proved to be the year of the crucifixion, was the 4th of the 202d Olympiad; in which year, Phlegon, a heathen writer, tells us there was a most extraordinary eclipse of the sun that ever was seen. But I find by calculation, that there could be no total eclipse of the sun at Jerusalem, in a natural way, in that year. So that what Phlegon here calls an eclipse of the sun, seems to have been the great darkness for three hours at the time of our Savior's crucifixion, as mentioned by the evangelist: a darkness altogether supernatural, as the moon was then in the side of the heavens opposite to the sun; and therefore could not possibly darken the sun to any part of the earth."

Thus we are brought down, by astronomical accuracy, to A. D. 33, and find it the 4746th year of the Julian period. The present is A. D. 1840. 4713, the year of the Julian period at Christ's birth, added = 6553 of the Julian period. 4256, the year of the Julian period in the 7th year of Artaxerxes, from the present, 6553, leaves 2297 years since the 7th of Artaxerxes. Here, then, we only want three years of 2300 years since that point. Artaxerxes; and since him

3700, A. M., the 7th of 2300, to 1843.

6000 years to 1843, A.D. Having traced the first typical prophecy from the creation through 6,000 years, down to A. D. 1843, we have gained, to say the least, highly probable evidence, that the great Jubilee will come in 1843. But we will now return to another prediction of the same glorious event.

Vision of four Beasts; Daniel, 7th chapter.

In the first year of Belshazzar, A. M. 3610, and B. C. 547, according to the foregoing plan, Daniel had a vision of four great beasts, which he was told were four kingdoms which should arise successively and fill up the time from then to the coming of the Son of man in the clouds of heaven to possess his everlasting kingdom. And when he should so come, those beasts were to be slain and their body be given to the burning flame. And until then the saints were to be

persecuted and worn out; but then, and not till then, the saints will possess the kingdom. So the great Jubilee cannot come until the coming of the Son of man in the clouds of heaven. Then will come the rest which remains for the

people of God. I hope every one will read the chapter carefully, and see if there is any place for a rest for the saints, or for a millenium, until the Son of man comes in the clouds of heaven.

The four kingdoms thus predicted, and the only four which can be found to have successively existed and filled up the whole period of time from Daniel to us, are, 1. The Chaldean kingdom, existing when Daniel wrote. 2. The Medo-Persian kingdom, which succeeded it, after the death of Belshazzar. 3. The Grecian kingdom, of which Alexander was the head. 4. The Roman government, which swallowed up the others, and exists in its papal form to the present day. But it is acknowledged on all hands, that this Roman government must expire before the millenium, in any shape, arrives. If so, then, before the millenium, Christ must appear for the destruction of the body of the beast.

Vision of the Ram he Goat, and 2300 days. Daniel, 8th chapter.

Two years after the foregoing vision, A. M. 3612, and B. C. 545, Daniel had another vision, representing in substance the same kingdoms, commencing with the second, which is the kingdom of Media and Persia, which was presented under the emblem of a ram with two horns. This ram was overthrown by a rough goat from the west, which Daniel was told was the king of Grecia. The great horn, the first king; the four horns which came up after the great one was broken, were four kings, or four kingdoms which were to arise after the first king's death. That the great horn or first king was Alexander the Great, all commentators are agreed. The four kings or kingdoms into which his kingdom was divided, were, Syria in the north, Egypt in the south, Persia in the east, and Greece, or Macedon, in the west. The little horn which sprang up out of one of these was the papal power; which was set up and established by authority of the Greek emperor Justinian, A. D. 538. This little horn has waxed great and persecuted the saints up to the present time. But ultimately he is to be broken without hand.

After this vision had been presented to Daniel's view, he

heard, verses 13, 14, "one saint speaking, and another saint said unto that certain saint which spake, How long shall be the vision, concerning the daily sacrifice, and the transgression of desolation, to give both the sanctuary and the host to be trodden under foot? And he said unto me, Unto 2300 days; then shall the sanctuary be cleansed."

There are here four questions to be decided: 1. What is the sanctuary? 2. What is the host? 3. What is meant by 2300 days? 4. When were those days to begin?

1. What is the "sanctuary?" It is the church of God. Heb. viii. 1, 2: "Now of the things we have spoken this is the sum: we have such an high priest who is set on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens; a minister of the sanctuary, and of the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, and not man.

Of what sanctuary is Jesus Christ the minister, but the church, composed of all his spiritual people, dead and living? This sanctuary will be cleansed from all defilements and corruption at the resurrection of the just; and be presented spotless before his throne, with exceeding joy.

2. What is "the host?" The people of God who compose the sanctuary or church, in their individual capacity, each one being one of God's host. Ex. xii. 41: "And it came to pass, at the end of 430 years, even the self-same day, it came to pass that all the Lord's hosts went out from the land of Egypt." This people were emphatically God's people, his visible church. The whole church and all the members of it are to be in a depressed and imperfect state until the end of the 2300 days, and then be cleansed.

3. What is meant by "2300 days?" Not 2300 literal days, but 2300 years, each day representing a year; as in many other places in the Bible. That Daniel did use a day for a year, is demonstrated in the fulfilment of the time, times, and dividing of time, chap. vii. 25, and other places. This also will be shown more clearly in answering question

4. When did those days begin? 1. They did not begin at the time the vision was seen; for had they begun then, B. C. 545, they would have ended A. D. 1755, which they did not; for the sanctuary is not yet cleansed.

2. There is no time mentioned in the vision of the eighth chapter, when the 2300 days were to begin. Nor did Daniel know when they were to begin. For he says in the last verse he was sick certain days, and he " was astonished at the vision, but none understood it." Now he did understand

the meaning of the images of the vision, for they had been explained. He knew also that the end was to be at the time appointed, for he was told this. But the meaning of